Don’t let the war win is the mantra of members of Emmanuel Macron’s close circles. This means tackling a wide range of crisis situations that have been triggered by the conflict in Ukraine. The French president went into this weekend with a significant foreign and defence policy agenda to both …
Read More »IntelBrief: French Withdrawal from Mali Leaves UN Peace Operation Vulnerable
Last Wednesday, November 9, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane, the counterterrorism operation established to address the jihadist threat in Mali. The departure of French counterterrorism forces will leave the UN peace operation in Mali – the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) – increasingly …
Read More »IntelBrief: United Arab Emirates Uses Vast Financial Resources to Influence U.S. Foreign Policy
According to the Washington Post, several U.S. officials discussed with journalists a classified assessment that portrays a vast, multifaceted effort by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to influence U.S. foreign policy. The UAE funds various lobbying efforts, reports by influential U.S. think tanks, and recruitment of ex-U.S. officials to try …
Read More »Analysis: Have China and India shifted stance on Russia war?
China and India, after months of refusing to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, did not stand in the way of the release this week of a statement by the world’s leading economies that strongly criticizes Moscow. Could this, at last, signal a bold new policy change by Beijing and New …
Read More »From the History of Global Politics and International Relations: The Clausewitzian Viewpoint of War
The focal questions about war In dealing from both theoretical and practical points of view about war, at least six fundamental questions arise: 1) What is war?; 2) What types of war exist?; 3) Why do wars occur?; 4) What is the connection between war and justice?; 5) The question …
Read More »Russia’s Missing Peacemakers
Why the Country’s Elites Are Struggling to Break With Putin Even in a war that has gone poorly for Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry’s November 9 announcement of a full retreat from the city of Kherson marked a special kind of disaster. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city seized …
Read More »Turkey Briefing
At 15:17 p.m. Sunday, a CCTV camera picked up a woman in black hijab and tight camouflage pants walking at Taksim Square. A few minutes later, another camera caught her shopping in a store on Istiklal Street. After sitting on a bench for about 45 minutes, at 16:11 she took …
Read More »U.S. tells Iraq it won’t work with officials linked to terror groups
The Biden administration has made it clear to Iraq’s new prime minister that it will not work with ministers and senior officials who are affiliated with Shiite militias the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations, two sources briefed on the issue told me. Why it matters: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani became the …
Read More »The Russian-Turkish Bond to Harm the West
Turkey’s skies remain open to Russian airlines and its doors remain open to hundreds of thousands of Russians and their money. Turkey’s exports to Russia are surging. Russian cash helped to plug the growing hole in Turkey’s foreign currency reserves — and at a time when Erdogan needs foreign money …
Read More »This is Where Bankrupt FTX’s Money Went
The executives running the bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX, may have broken speed records for how fast they could spend other people’s money. They just weren’t any good at managing it on behalf of their investors or safeguarding it for their crypto exchange customers.
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